Johnhav430

I did a search and didn't see this posted yet.....I've heard that cars preserved like this can still have interior pieces come unglued etc. Man at 8.5 miles I don't think I'd even want it driven 1 more mile, or am I looking at it wrongly?

https://www.foxnews.com/auto/1987-bu...old-for-200000

ArmyofOne

I honestly can't believe it sold for that. Old cars w/low miles (like that) are going to be plagued with issues if used for anything other than a museum piece. First time you drive it more than 10 miles at a stretch, hoses, belts, gaskets, who knows what else could let loose. Granted, it was stored in a climate controlled showroom, but still. I would be willing to bet that they did not much to it while it sat there for 3 decades.

Is it a piece of Automotive history? Sure. Is it Iconic? Not really, its a grand national with a 3.8L V6, a turbo and a beefed up trans. It was ahead of its time in the 1980's, but today we have access to far better cars, for apparently much less money. I would almost rather see a car of this vintage with 300k on it. That to me is more impressive.

-J-P-L-

With only 8 miles, it was clearly planned to be sold this way in the future with someone expecting it to be a classic. Most new cars have more than 8 miles on dealer lots. Just strange to find a car never even prepared for delivery, wrapped in plastic, never even test driven after 30+ years.

IS350jet

The GNX was an awesome, and rare collectible automobile. The problem with the GNX is that it was built by GM at a time when they were turning out the crappiest cars in their history. 1987 was probably the peak of General Motors crap,.

mmarshall

Except for the early-70s Chevy Vega and its self-destructing engine and body rust, and the early-60s Corvair disaster, the peak of GM unreliability was probably the 1980-81 X-body FWD compacts (Citation, Phoenix, Skylark, Omega). By 1982, the X-bodies had at least gotten throttle-body fuel-injection to replace the dangerously balky carburetors on the initial models. By 1987-88 (he period you speak of), much of GM had converted to fuel injection, though other problems remained.

The Grand-National / GNX was an obvious attempt by Buick to sell to a younger audience, at a time when the nameplate was starting to appeal more to older folks....though they would have probably sold more of them if more had been built. Even back in the late 1960s, at the peak of the Muscle-car era, the Buick GS350/400, though fully competitive mechanically with its sister Olds 442, Pontiac GTO, and Chevy Chevelle SS, never had the same popularity.

Stroock639

my favorite buick! i'd love to have one of these

MattyG

Definitely a collectible car and a very interesting one. I'd have one of these too, but not at $200K. Someone thinks they'll recoup the investment by either using it as a touring display or museum piece. It must be some sort of speculative play going on with these: no. 547, the last one that came off the line sold for $220K and it had 68 miles on it.

Meanwhile the much better balanced handler with this drivetrain was Pontiac's 20th anniversary turbo Trans Am. And they made 1500 of those. You can pick that one up for about $16K. Guess it's all about rarity and mint in box... someone just paid $100K for a unopened, sealed mint condition Super Mario Brothers game.